"We can take all our angst and apply it to cancer research," Amory McAndrew was saying at the Metropolitan Club last night at the start of The Society of Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Associates Committee's annual Fall Party. Around her, the club's Great Hall was aswirl with glamorous gowns, many by Valentino, which was a co-host of the night's festivities, which was co-chaired by McAndrew, Mollie Ruprecht Acquavella, and Anna Burke Patterson.
Everywhere you turned, darkness was vanquished, which is only appropriate for an institution devoted to treating and curing a medical scourge. The Metropolitan Club's kitchen turned out a comfort food menu, Ron Wendt Design created angst-relieving décor and the music of DJ D-Nice helped more than 300 guests forget the world outside for a few hours. Lydia Fenet, the Christie’s auctioneer, led a spirited auction to benefit the Associates Committee’s newest initiative to fund research for Clinical Genomic Profiling for Pediatric Cancer Patients, which can help identify gene mutations that lead to the development of cancer, and the evening's proceeds will help MSK researchers and clinicians create a new paradigm of diagnosis and treatment.
In her remarks, the chair of the Associates committee Allison Aston called the evening "a collaboration of time, talent and dedication to raising important funds", and singled out the Society's head, Lavinia Branca Snyder and her staff. "Nothing happens without this dream team," she said.
Among those dancing cancer and the moment's cares away: Tabitha Simmons, Charlotte Ronson, Alexander Acquavella, Jamie and Veronica Beard, Wes Gordon, Olivia Chantecaille, Jennifer Fisher, Valerie Boster Macauley, Chelsea Leyland, Jordan Foster, Molly Howard, Kate Foley, Jessica Sailer and Mark van Lith, Rickie de Sole, Jane Keltner de Valle, Allison and Jay Aston, Emilia Fanjul Pfeifler and Brian Pfeifler, Meredith Melling, Brook and Ferebee Taube, Corbin and Beth Blake Day, Annelise Winter, Joanna and Peter de Neufville, Nick and Travis Acquavella, Gretchen Gunlocke Fenton, Meredith Melling, Barbara Hodes, Jeremy Hu, Anna Burke Patterson and John and Erin O'Connor.
Photos by Angela Pham/BFA.com.